Food-Fix Scheme
Inception In 500 AR, Odham Kendar and Liber Djevak met at the funeral reception of Receiver Janrad Norn. Lord Kendar recognized this as a rare opportunity to speak with the reclusive Lord of Secrets, and approached him with an offer. Houses Kendar and Djevak, between them, controlled that vast majority of the Great Families' food production. The only other food exporter was House Shau, and their exports were tiny by comparison. Odham proposed that Kendar and Djevak make a secret pact to raise the price of food under false claims of increasing production expenses. The other Families would have no choice but to pay up, as their only other option was to let their people starve. And since Janrad's death meant that the office of Receiver was temporarily empty, there was no higher power to step in and force the agricultural alliance to lower their prices. Liber saw potential in the plan, and the two Elector Lords agreed to raise the price of food from 2 Geld per unit to 4. The goal of this scheme was twofold. First, it would allow both House Djevak and House Kendar to greatly increase their income - they would now make twice as much money off of their primary exports, and would not even have to worry about losing customers, because food was such a critical need. Odham and Liber each had their own second motive for participating in the scheme, motives they kept secret from each other. Deception Odham did not just want to make extra money. House Kendar was already quite wealthy. Rather, Odham's true goal was to weaken the other Houses so that he could apply political pressure to them. Specifically, this would put House Norn on very shaky ground, allowing House Kendar to force them to come to the negotiating table, where Odham hoped to make a deal to restore Kendar access to the Tramns. Furthermore, Odham Kendar was already planning his bid for the office of Receiver, and believed that weakening the other Houses and making them keenly aware of their dependence on him would give him greater leverage to secure votes. Liber also had an ulterior motive. As soon as he and Odham finalized their deal, he immediately betrayed his co-conspirator. While Odham raised the price of food to 4 Geld per unit, Liber only raised the price of House Djevak's exports to 3 Geld per unit. While Djevak lacked the production to steal House Kendar's major food contracts in this way, the deception did allow House Djevak to greatly increase their own income without any diplomatic repercussions, while House Kendar was immediately resented for their price-gouging. Djevak, meanwhile, was not only not seen as exploitative, but was even hailed by some as willing to stand up to House Kendar. Anticipation and Opposition Kavin Norn guessed that House Kendar would try something like this, though he never suspected House Djevak. At the exact moment the two agricultural Lords were finalizing their deal, Kavin was in the very same room developing a plan to counter it. Lord Norn gathered together Lord Benedict Shau and Lord Davion Redmond, warning them of the danger of a price-fixing scheme and imploring them to join forces in seeking countermeasures. Norn and Redmond agreed to a military alliance, but Davion planned from the very beginning to betray House Norn to win the favor of House Kendar, reasoning that this would allow him to negotiate for lower food prices with the Kendars. Benedict estimated that, with considerable investments from Houses Norn and Redmond, he would be able to increase his food production, thus providing an alternative source from the Kendars, but Kavin rejected the plan after some debate, considering it too expensive. Ultimately, nothing came of the meeting, and the fixing scheme went forward without any real opposition. Consequences The consequences of the food-fixing scheme were far-reaching and catastrophic. Half or more of the wars and political events that occurred over the course of the Interregnum could be traced somehow to the price-fix. The most direct effect was the renewal of the feud between House Norn and House Kendar. A few months after putting his plan into motion, Odham Kendar wrote to Kavin Norn, offering to negotiate a lower rate for food in exchange for House Norn allowing House Kendar to subscribe to the Tramns. Kavin agreed to entertain an offer, and Odham sent his son Roman to bargain with the Norns. Roman, however, had his own plans, which spiraled out of control and led to a number of disastrous events in the Depths, including Aldrich Norn's fugitive status, Kavin Norn's assassination at the Peace Talk, and ultimately the war with the mysterious King of the Depths. Although few events outside of the Depths can be ''directly ''connected to the food-fixing scheme, a common pastime for City historians is to demonstrate links of varying plausibility between the price-fix and events that occurred months or years later in completely different parts of the Realm.